Slax - pocket operating system
It's no secret that openness, ease of assembly and tuning of the Linux kernel allow installing the system not only on a hard disk, but also on portable media such as disks, memory cards, flash drives, players, etc., and the compactness and the undemanding nature of the kernel and the accompanying software to resources allow you to run the system directly from these media.
Such "compact" versions of Linux-systems are called live-distributions . Now they created a great many, for all sorts of tasks. Also, some full-fledged desktop distributions (Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Mandriva) allow you to run the system from a CD, thus you can easily get acquainted with it without installing it on a hard disk.
In this topic, I want to tell you about one of the popular live-distros - Slax .
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Slax is a Linux distribution based on Slackware, designed to run from CDs and all kinds of removable drives. To begin with, I will tell about its advantages over many similar systems:
1) Compactness
Apparently, Slax was originally designed to run from a mini-CD, and therefore the size of the distribution was always a little less than 200 MB.
In addition, the latest 6th version of the system modules uses the squashfs file system and lzma compression. This made it possible to make the distribution kit as concise as possible and fit into it everything that is needed for convenient operation.
2) Portability
Sometimes it is necessary to save some files after working in a live distribution. Slax allows you to do this if the system is running from a rewritable medium (for example, a flash drive), and this is done completely transparent to the user. In this case, you can save files not only within the home directory, but generally within the entire system. Thus, for example, in order to establish localization, it is not necessary to recompile the entire basic system - just change a few files in / etc
3) Convenience
Slax 6 includes KDE 3.5.9 and a basic set of programs: Konqueror browser, Kopete, KOffice office suite, KPlayer, and others. And although many people think KDE is a heavyweight DE, here the developers did an excellent job - everything works very quickly and responsively. It also gives us convenience - I think that any Windows user would quickly become comfortable with this system.
4) Extensibility
I already wrote that changes to any files can be saved, thus you can quickly change anything in the system. In addition, Slax supports a system of modules, which in a running system can be installed in 2 mouse clicks, and can also be included in the distribution itself, and installed automatically when Slax starts. Finally, from Slackware, the pkgconfig package manager remains here, so you can install any package from the Slackware repository in Slax (for example, from here)
Application
Slax is not designed for installation on a hard disk (that is, it is, of course, possible, but there is no special meaning). It is best to use it as a compact and portable system that can be run on almost any computer, even without a hard disk (by the way, when there was no hard disk in my laptop, because of the repair, I worked in Slax).
If your Linux and you want to use familiar interface and programs on any computer, Slax is perfect for this.
In addition, it can be useful not only to avid Linux users, but also to Windows users, for example, for data recovery in case of a strong failure (the corrupted NTFS partition in my mode was excellent in Slax), or for formatting partitions new laptop :).
PS: In my next topic, I will describe in detail the installation of Slax on a USB flash drive, and also describe the initial configuration of the system, in particular the Russification, well, I will make a small selection of modules.
References:
Slax Official Website
Several screenshots
Official Slax Modules Repository
Such "compact" versions of Linux-systems are called live-distributions . Now they created a great many, for all sorts of tasks. Also, some full-fledged desktop distributions (Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Mandriva) allow you to run the system from a CD, thus you can easily get acquainted with it without installing it on a hard disk.
In this topic, I want to tell you about one of the popular live-distros - Slax .
')
Slax is a Linux distribution based on Slackware, designed to run from CDs and all kinds of removable drives. To begin with, I will tell about its advantages over many similar systems:
1) Compactness
Apparently, Slax was originally designed to run from a mini-CD, and therefore the size of the distribution was always a little less than 200 MB.
In addition, the latest 6th version of the system modules uses the squashfs file system and lzma compression. This made it possible to make the distribution kit as concise as possible and fit into it everything that is needed for convenient operation.
2) Portability
Sometimes it is necessary to save some files after working in a live distribution. Slax allows you to do this if the system is running from a rewritable medium (for example, a flash drive), and this is done completely transparent to the user. In this case, you can save files not only within the home directory, but generally within the entire system. Thus, for example, in order to establish localization, it is not necessary to recompile the entire basic system - just change a few files in / etc
3) Convenience
Slax 6 includes KDE 3.5.9 and a basic set of programs: Konqueror browser, Kopete, KOffice office suite, KPlayer, and others. And although many people think KDE is a heavyweight DE, here the developers did an excellent job - everything works very quickly and responsively. It also gives us convenience - I think that any Windows user would quickly become comfortable with this system.
4) Extensibility
I already wrote that changes to any files can be saved, thus you can quickly change anything in the system. In addition, Slax supports a system of modules, which in a running system can be installed in 2 mouse clicks, and can also be included in the distribution itself, and installed automatically when Slax starts. Finally, from Slackware, the pkgconfig package manager remains here, so you can install any package from the Slackware repository in Slax (for example, from here)
Application
Slax is not designed for installation on a hard disk (that is, it is, of course, possible, but there is no special meaning). It is best to use it as a compact and portable system that can be run on almost any computer, even without a hard disk (by the way, when there was no hard disk in my laptop, because of the repair, I worked in Slax).
If your Linux and you want to use familiar interface and programs on any computer, Slax is perfect for this.
In addition, it can be useful not only to avid Linux users, but also to Windows users, for example, for data recovery in case of a strong failure (the corrupted NTFS partition in my mode was excellent in Slax), or for formatting partitions new laptop :).
PS: In my next topic, I will describe in detail the installation of Slax on a USB flash drive, and also describe the initial configuration of the system, in particular the Russification, well, I will make a small selection of modules.
References:
Slax Official Website
Several screenshots
Official Slax Modules Repository
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/27478/
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